Chris M
In these enlightened times, most civilized people agree that upskirting is very much a no-no, and depending on where you are reading this, quite possibly illegal, for good reason. In the UK, it can land you on the sexual offenders’ register, for example.
Sadly, the message doesn’t seem to have reached LG’s Polish office which has been forced to apologize after retweeting a TikTok video showing a man craftily taking upskirt shots of an unsuspecting woman, and getting away with it, by claiming he was just taking selfies.
LG didn’t make the video, which was the work of a known ‘prankster’, according to AdWeek, but in a world where reposting can often imply endorsement, it’s simply not acceptable to post stuff like this – especially as it looks like it could have been commissioned by LG in the first place.
Some upskirters will tell you it’s a victimless crime. It’s not. It’s a form of non-consensual sexual intrusion.
LG Polska is understood to have commissioned the video to demonstrate the new dual-screen feature on its flagship phones, allowing a photographer to view images as they work.
Upskirting was formally criminalized in the UK last year after Gina Martin was the victim of one shutterbug at a music festival in 2017, and discovered that its lack of specificity meant a legal grey area when she went to the police to claim sexual harassment.
In the US, however, whilst it certainly isn’t ‘OK’, it’s not a federal crime, covered only by local regulation in a few States. Surely that can’t be right? This isn’t an over-friendly touch of the arm, or an overly-long hug, this is blatant sexual assault, and yet, a clever lawyer can get most perpetrators out of charges, in the rare event they are filed.
What makes this even more disturbing is that recent studies have shown that girls as young as ten have been victims of the practice – an even more serious charge.
But the fact is, nobody should be a victim of upskirting – and there’s no real excuse for it. If you really want an upskirting video, there are plenty of porn performers – paid for their time and willing participants – who are there to oblige you.
LG Polska, which has since changed its TikTok handle to LG Poland, has now removed all its activity from the platform, apart from an apology posting, explaining that the video slipped through the local marketing team’s vetting procedures. Hmmm.
We hope that’s all it was – but even so, there aren’t excuses for posting glorification of such sexual harassment. It should never have been commissioned, made or posted.
TikTok has also removed the video from its platform, and reposts to Twitter have been removed on copyright grounds.
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